1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminal fitting and to a connector provided therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,524 discloses a terminal fitting with a main portion that can be inserted into a cavity of a connector housing. An inner wall of the main portion is embossed to define an outwardly projecting stabilizer that can be inserted into a recess formed in an inner wall of the cavity. The stabilizer must align with the recess, and hence prevents an erroneous insertion of the terminal fitting into the cavity. On the other hand, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0164567 discloses a terminal fitting that has a tongue and preventing pieces that bulge out at the opposite widthwise edges of the tongue. Openings are formed in side surfaces of the main portion and receive the preventing pieces so that the preventing pieces engage the edges of the openings. FIG. 14 shows a hypothetical terminal fitting 103 that simply combines the features of these two references. The front half of the terminal fitting 103 has preventing pieces 114B and preventing portions 116A to prevent excessive deformation and the rear half of the terminal fitting 103 has a stabilizer 117 to prevent erroneous insertion of the terminal fitting 103.
The excessive deformation preventing portions and the erroneous-insertion preventing portion are arranged independently and respectively require spaces. As a result, locations for other functional parts are limited, thereby causing a problem of a reducing design freedom and complicating efforts to miniaturize the terminal fitting 103.
The invention was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to extend functional parts while improving design freedom.